When you lose weight, you have a calorie deficit, while when you gain weight, you have a calorie surplus. If you want to build muscle or just do a lot of sport, you also need a lot of calories. This is what happens to your body at 3000 kcal a day.
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3000 kcal daily: This is what happens to your body
The daily calorie requirement varies from person to person and is made up of body weight, muscle mass, fat mass, age and activity level. General calorie specifications are therefore imprecise and can cause frustration when losing or gaining weight. However, certain reference values and calorie calculators are helpful for orientation. For example, an adult woman who weighs 60 kilograms and has an office job, who does three hours of strength training and two hours of moderate endurance training, has a daily calorie requirement of around 2000 kcal (= kilocalories). In this way, it would completely cover its needs and neither decrease nor increase.
If this exemplary 60-kilo woman were to eat a total of 3000 calories a day – 1000 kcal more than she needs – she would gain massive weight within a short period of time. But how many pounds of fat and muscle would she gain? Since she does strength training regularly, a small percentage of the 1000 extra calories would flow into the muscles – in 10 days the woman would build up a maximum of 150 to 200 grams of muscle. The majority, however, would accumulate as fat on the abdomen, hips, legs, and chin. In about 10 days, the 130-pound woman would pack on a full pound of pure body fat and be well on her way to obesity, with all the health implications .
Calorie surplus: How to effectively build muscle mass
3,000 calories is probably too much for most women with a sedentary or standing job. Only if you do physical work as a construction worker or craftswoman are 3000 calories not unrealistic. Even with a tremendously high level of exercise six days a week, 3,000 calories would probably be too high for a sedentary woman.
Using the example of the 60-kilo woman, let’s calculate how high the calorie surplus should be for moderate muscle growth. In order to build muscle but not store fat at the same time, a calorie surplus of between 250 and 500 calories per day is recommended. In order to steadily build muscle mass , she would have to consume between 2250 and 2500 calories. Between 1 and 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight should be consumed in order to provide the muscles with the building blocks they need. That would be between 60 and 120 grams of protein a day for a 60-kilo woman – preferably from high-quality protein sources .
Tip: Increase your calorie surplus a little more slowly to build muscle. So you don’t risk fat accumulation.
Foods for healthy weight gain
If you are underweight , want to build muscle mass or compensate for high calorie consumption, you can use these healthy calorie bombs. The following foods are characterized by a high proportion of healthy (omega-3) fatty acids and, for the most part, a good portion of protein . In combination with exercise, the proteins help build muscle mass and prevent you from gaining unhealthy fat mass.
Healthy foods with high calorie density:
- Nuts and seeds: walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, flaxseeds, chia seeds.
- Vegetable oils with a favorable fatty acid profile : linseed oil, olive oil, coconut oil, grape seed oil, pumpkin seed oil.
- High-fat dairy products or milk substitutes: (soy) yoghurt, (vegetable) milk, quark, cottage cheese.
- Oily fish: pollock, herring, mackerel, eel, tuna.
- Also: fruit, avocado, wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta.
Important : To meet your mineral and vitamin needs, you should also drastically increase your vegetable portion.
How much are 3000 calories actually?
To give you an idea of how much 3000 calories in the form of food actually is, here are a few examples for you, each with around 3000 kcal:
- Three Wiener Schnitzel with fries
- 24 medium bananas
- Sechs Big Macs
- Nine pounds of broccoli
- Six bars of chocolate
- Three cans of peanuts
